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Published: August 5th 2007
Timing is everything right! The day we arrived in Oaxaca coincided with the first day of violence the city had seen since November. Most of you probably remember last summer when the teachers in Oaxaca went on strike and brought thousands of their friends (The APPO) with them to occupy the town center until November. Vicente Fox ordered police to take back the city with force and 15 or so people died in a couple days of fighting.
We happened to arrive the same day that the APPO (who as far as we could gather are Marxists) marched in the city and clashed with police and burned buses. Anyway, the only real remnants we saw were police being carted around town in trucks and the locals seeming to have a real distaste for the state and federal government. Definitely an interesting time to arrive. There were signs of the tension all over with every stand in the town square showing videos of the fighting and protesters silently marching.
Regardless of all of this, the town was great and is known as the culinary capital of Mexico. We tried Mezcal with a worm for the first time as this is
Mezcal territory. Not too bad I guess. We tried chile covered grasshoppers for the first time which prompted us to immediately go back to the Mezcal shop for more samples. Also tried Mexican string cheese, grapefruit with chili pepper, Oaxacan chocolate, tamales with mole, and string cheese dang quesadillas. Liz was scolded and publicly humiliated by a scathing kitchen worker for taking a napkin from a local kitchen in the market. Tensions were eased and relationships mended after we gave her 2 pesos.
Our hotel had parrots and a hairless dog that looked like a mix between Nelly (Eric's dog) and Mr. Bigglesworth.
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